[It’s easy to wax satirical about the possibility that in some future time there could be more poets laureate in Colorado than readers of poetry. The fact is, poetry is an endangered species, and even those of us with a more prosaic bent can appreciate the importance of encouraging a broader audience. Of course, even poets have different views of what they do. Pablo Neruda wrote, for example, that] poetry is an act of peace, … Poetry is a way of taking life by the throat.

The figure a poem makes. It begins in delight and ends in wisdom…in a clarification of life–not necessarily a great clarification, such as sects and cults are founded on, but in a momentary stay against confusion.